So wish we could attend, as it's one of our fave bars, and the Secret Cinema is one of our fave happenings in Philly! Thought I'd spread the word for PHL area tiki folks! xo Mod Betty

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The Secret Cinema presents EXOTICA MUSIC FILMS at The Trestle Inn

The Trestle Inn
11th & Callowhill, Philadelphia, PA
267-239-0290

Wednesday, November 14, 2012
8:00 pm
Admission: $7.00

On Wednesday, November 14, 2012, the Secret Cinema returns to The Trestle Inn, the popular "Whiskey and Go Go" nightspot in Philadelphia's emerging "loft district." On that night we'll revisit a favorite Secret Cinema program concept that we last presented nine years ago,* EXOTICA MUSIC FILMS. This collection of ultra-rare footage from a variety of sources -- including very early TV shows and film jukeboxes from the 1940s -- offers a chance to hear, and see, a wondrous assortment of international music (both authentic and gloriously fake), from a carefree, boozy time, before David Byrne rendered "World Music" a politically-correct bore.

All of the films will be projected from 16mm film prints on a giant movie screen (not video).

There will be one complete show, starting at 8:00 pm. Admission is $7.00,

The latter-day explosion of interest in "exotica" music stemmed from the publication of Re/Search's INCREDIBLY STRANGE MUSIC books in 1993. That set forth a wave of unforeseeable events: prices for old Martin Denny albums skyrocketed, bands like Combustible Edison explored new "cocktail" music, and the success of Esquivel reissues and martini bars prompted nearly every record label to start up a "lounge" division. While most of those imprints (or indeed, many record labels) do not survive, today interest continues with international Tiki conventions, and new groups exploring their ancestors' record collections for musical inspiration. The opportunity to see vintage exotica music performances on a big screen remains rare, however.

The November edition of EXOTICA MUSIC FILMS at the Trestle Inn will include past favorites, as well as some reels never shown by us before. A few highlights include:

Korla Pandit - The handsome Hindu master of the Hammond organ captivated women with his beautiful music and hypnotic eyes, even though he never spoke during his 15-minute TV show, allegedly the first all-music program on television. We'll screen a complete episode of this show, featuring Pandit's haunting, mystical keyboard sounds. Korla was seen in Tim Burton's film ED WOOD, and Fantasy has reissued some of his original '50s albums.

Yma Sumac - Exotica personified, the beautiful Peruvian legend burst onto the international scene in 1950, displaying all four of her octaves on the LP VOICE OF THE XTABAY, and creating new musical languages with her abstract, wordless vocals. We'll show a kinescope of Sumac performing on THE FRANK SINATRA SHOW, a CBS television series of the early 50s.

The Three Suns - Another cause célèbre of the INCREDIBLY STRANGE books, this guitar/organ/accord ion instrumental trio from Philadelphia sold lots of albums for RCA in the'50s, and figured prominently on that label's SPACE AGE POP series of CDs in the 1990s. Guitarist Al Nevins teamed with Don Kirshner in 1959 to form Aldon Music, which became the most successful music publisher of the Brill Building era. We will present rare early footage of the group from 1944.

Plus ... Hawaiian sing-alongs, Latin music from the 1940s, and much more!

The Trestle Inn presents a mash up of retro entertainment, music, food and drink. Expect to find Barbarella-clad Go Go dancers swinging to French pop, blue-eyed soul, psychobilly, funk, garage and disco on most other nights of the week.

*The Secret Cinema often describes itself as a "floating repertory cinema." But in 2012, does everyone even know what "repertory cinema" means, in its purest sense? We suspect the phrase was not coined until the 1970s, when a nationwide network of movie theaters (such as Philadelphia's TLA Cinema and the Bandbox) programmed an eclectic mix of Hollywood classics, midnight oddities, and recent cult favorites, establishing a repertoire of worthy film fare that could be repeatedly showcased to those who had not seen them, as well as allow repeat viewings over a period of time -- much as live repertory theaters had kept alive the great plays of the past for new audiences.

The Secret Cinema was started with the aim of rescuing forgotten films from the past to add to this repertoire of great viewing, by showing films of all kinds that traditional repertory outlets had ignored. We did not foresee in 1992 that we would someday be one of the only presenters of the cinema of the past left -- or that we would be just about the only one to do so by consistently projecting actual film. On the other hand, we did not anticipate lasting more than 20 years, either.

Over that period of time we've presented hundreds of programs of films never revived by anyone else. We've also created our own repertoire of these programs, which we occasionally revive for new audiences. We're still working on brand new ideas for Secret Cinema programs, but as we return to our "roots" by showing films in a small nightclub (the Trestle Inn), we take the opportunity to revive one of our favorite revivals, with a program concept we first developed in 1996: EXOTICA MUSIC FILMS. This collection of fascinating filmed musical performances from the pre-rock era was later expanded to include three separate "volumes," and was eventually presented by us in venues in New York, Baltimore and San Francisco, as well as here in Philly. We last presented an EXOTICA MUSIC FILMS program nine years ago.